Protecting and exploring our global ocean is a huge job: It covers more than 70 percent of Earth’s surface. Cutting-edge technologies help us dive deeper, gather more ocean data and solve some of its biggest challenges.

Here are 5 innovative high-tech tools borne from NOAA’s partnerships with the fishing industry and technology companies large and small.

In 2018, Black Swift Technologies (BST) was awarded a Phase I SBIR grant, the purpose of which was to determine the scientific, technical, and commercial feasibility of a proposed air-deployed unmanned aerial system (UAS) for boundary layer observations in turbulent environments.  Critical to the success of the UAS platform was Black Swift’s ability to reduce the complexity and weight of the vehicle compared with existing platforms, offering an order of magnitude decrease in cost while maintaining endurance without sacrificing performance and measurement quality. These characteristics proved to be equally valuable in the eyes of the United States Air Force.

Sea Grant is partnering with Swift Engineering on the development of a buoy like none before. Meet Kelp - a remote, self-powered buoy for water quality monitoring.

Joined through NOAA’s Small Business Innovation Research Program, Sea Grant is helping Swift Engineering deploy and test Kelp in different environments for a variety of purposes. Check out this multimedia feature to learn more about Sea Grant and Swift’s partnership on Kelp.

NOAA’s Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Program recently awarded approximately $8 million in grants to 20 Phase II small business applicants. Information on the FY20 funded projects, including abstracts of successful proposals and comments on anticipated results, can be found here. Grant research topic areas included Aquaculture, Recreational and Commercial Fisheries, Weather Service Improvement and Evolution, Flood Inundation, Next-Generation Observation and Modelling Systems, and Next-Generation NOAA Platforms.

A NOAA SBIR company developed equipment that is used by marine biologists around the world both underwater and in the laboratory to study coral recruitment and health and to address other issues related to understanding and stewardship of the marine environment.